This Thanksgiving look at Grandmas or Great Grandmas Recipes

By: Ryan Russell and Beccy Tanner

It’s Thanksgiving week and you might be needing a little help thinking of some new recipes to try.  Why try to find new things when you have the best from the old recipe books that grandma had laying around.  In 1979 the town of St. John put together a great recipe book to celebrate the cities centennial.  Here are some oldies but goodies straight from that cookbook.  But before we get to these timeless recipes let’s look at the Golden Rules for the kitchen.  These Golden Rules are also found in the St. John 1979 Centennial Cookbook but look even further back to the Century Cookbook form 1892. 

GOLDEN RULES FOR THE KITCHEN

  1. Without cleanliness and punctuality good cooking is impossible.
  2. Leave nothing dirty; clean and clear as you go.
  3. A time for everything; and everything in time.
  4. A good cook wastes nothing.
  5. An hour lost in the morning has to be run after all day.
  6. Haste without hurry saves worry, fuss and flurry.
  7. Stew boiled is stew spoiled.
  8. Strong fire for Roasting; clear fire for Broiling.
  9. Wash vegetables in three waters.
  10. Boil fish quickly, meat slowly.

(From Century Cookbook 1892, Belonged to Mrs. James Harris, grandmother of Helen and Ralph Waters.)

These recipes are sure to be a hit.  I’m personally a pecan pie lover! Don’t forget the whipped cream!

CORN BREAD

Lucille Hall

(From Her Mother, Mrs. T. W. Hall)

1 c. flour
2 c. corn meal
1 tsp. salt
2 T. sugar
1 tsp. baking powder		3/4 tsp. soda
1 egg (beaten together)
2 c. sour milk
1 c. sour cream

Beat together the egg, milk and cream. Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the first mixture.

Pour into a 9×13 inch greased pan and bake at 400° for about 1/2 hour or when done by tooth pick test.

DOWN HOME PECAN PIE

Beccy Tanner

3 eggs
1 c. corn syrup
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla  		2 T. melted margarine
1 c. pecan halves
1 c. brown sugar
9 in. unbaked pie shell  

Preheat oven to 400. Beat eggs with fork or eggbeater, add remaining ingredients and mix well by hand. Add pecans last, and place into the unbaked pie shell. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° and bake for 30 minutes or until pie is set.

TURKEY CASSEROLE

Elnor Shulz

1/2 c. oleo
2 cans (3 oz.) drained chopped mushrooms
3 T. flour
3 c. fat free chicken broth
3/4 c. cream or half and half  		2 T. pimiento (chopped)
3/4 c. grated cheese
4 c. cubed turkey
1 pkg. (12 oz.) medium egg noodles (cooked)  

Cook noodles. Heat margarine in pan, add flour. Remove, stir in broth, stirring to keep smooth. Add cream and cook till thickened. Stir in mushrooms, pimiento, and cubed turkey. Arrange layers of noodles and turkey mixture in greased casserole. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.

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Cornwell Beef is all about the beef – and family

By Beccy Tanner

For four generations, the Cornwells of Stafford County have farmed and raised some of the top beef cattle in Kansas.

Now, it is the fifth generation – the grandchildren who range in ages between 15 and 6 – who are taking the next steps for the future of the family name.

In the process of learning about science and entrepreneurship, they have created Cornwell Beef – a website and business that markets the family’s pasture-raised beef.

“We’re a fourth-generation family farm,” said their grandmother, Lisa Cornwell. “This came about as an entrepreneurship project. I love everything about kids learning entrepreneurship.”

And so, they began an experiment – the timing was perfect. It was right after the Covid pandemic shut almost everything down.

The grandchildren had plenty of time on their hands.

Melissa and Jake Cline run Cornwell Beef East along with their sons – Jack, 15, and Kolt, 13, in Eudora, KS. They have a freezer for beef pickups at Happy Valley Farm in Desoto.

Joe and Lisa Cornwell’s grandchildren who help are Gentri Bright, 14; Hadley Bright, 13; and Victor Cornwell, 11; Tianna Cornwell, 6; and Dawsyn Long, 6.

They also have help with a Great Bend delivery crew with Kambri Klug, 8; and Kenton Klug, 7.

The enterprising students first purchased meat from Walmart, Dillons, and Target –as an experiment. They needed some test products.

“We did kind of a science project, and we measured the grease that came off the meat – and its color and clarity,” Lisa Cornwell said. “Then, we compared that with ours, which is a lot leaner.”

The children then began talking about what a business would look like – what its name would be – Cornwell Beef, of course.

“We learned about labeling and how we had to have a USDA facility to have the meat processed,” Cornwell said. “The bigger kids update the website and do the inventory. My littles – and sometimes the bigs, because they can drive—deliver within the area.”

Cornwell Beef has developed a few food products in addition to their meat cuts  – such as Pat’s Regular Beef Jerky in Liebenthol made with Cornwell Beef. Another product, Stroot’s Beef Sticks of Goddard is also made using Cornwell Beef.

 And this next summer, there are plans to introduce a roast sauce that will make a roast taste more like brisket. They also have hot dogs that are becoming increasingly popular.

The family sells many of their products at White’s Foodliner in St. John and Main Street Deli in Stafford.

“Most of our sales are straight off our website,” Lisa Cornwell said. “And we do the home delivery straight to the porch. Hunting season is a great time of year for us, the hunters like locally raised meat while they’re here and enjoy taking them back home! We are going to try and expand our retail market into the rest of White’s stores later on.

“Right now, I’m out of steaks but will pick up another beef on Monday. The hunters take a lot of the steaks back home.”

Cornwell Farms began in 1917 with Courtney and Naomi Cornwell. Their only son, Jack, began the second generation on the farm when he married June. The couple had three children – Rick, Martha and Joe.

The third generation of Cornwells on the farm were Rick and Gayle who had three children – Jeff, Casey and Bethany. Joe and Lisa had four children – Melissa, Cami Jo, Ty and Marci.

The fourth generation continues the farming and Angus beef production.

“Joe and Ty farm together,” Lisa said. “Gentri, Hadley, and Victor update the website and do inventory. Gentri swaths hay and Victor is a little cowboy, he works cattle and farms. The littles enjoy helping with delivery. 

So, what makes Cornwell Beef different?

“We’re a small family farm,” Lisa Cornwell said. “We have a herd of 500 cows. We butcher two or three cows a month for the business. We are not doing anything crazy. We know each of these cows. We treat them like our kids.

“Our cows are on pasture until we’re ready to butcher.”

The cows live on grass from May through October.

 In late fall and winter, the herd lives on rye pastures and are fed ensilage, corn silage and ground hay.

“We only cut prime steaks which are like steakhouse steaks,” Lisa Cornwell said.

Which is why their Stafford County beef is beginning to be a sought-after commodity all across the state.

It really is about the beef.

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Hudson Cream Flour specializes in quality flour, tradition and plenty of innovation

By Beccy Tanner

When Darrell Bauer, owner of the Wheatland Café in Hudson talks about the quality and uses of Hudson Cream Flour, his voice takes on that enthusiastic tone of a loyal fan.

“There’s all kinds of flour out there but Hudson Cream never fails,” Bauer said. “And, they have a lot of good products – a biscuit mix, gravy mix that’s really good.”

But then, he starts listing all the dishes he uses the flour in:

“I use it in our cinnamon rolls, bierocks, for making gravy, breading chicken, chicken fries … I’ve used other self-rising flours before when I was out, and it just doesn’t do the same. I can’t tell you what they (Hudson Cream) do differently, but the food is always good.”

Stafford County Flour Mills Company in Hudson, which has produced Hudson Cream Flour for the past 118 years, has developed a mighty loyal reputation.

The gourmet magazine Saveur told readers in 1998 that “Hudson Cream is not a blend of hard and soft wheat flours, as all-purpose flours are, but is made entirely from hard red winter wheat. The result: higher, lighter breads with a rich flavor.”

Hudson Cream Flour is all about innovation and creativity.

It’s also about a loyal fan base of chefs and cooks that grows exponentially with each generation.

Especially in Stafford County, think about a holiday meal that doesn’t somewhere have Hudson Cream Flour included in a couple of the recipes.

But beyond flour, the Hudson mill is also a trendsetter in many other ways.

For example, in 2014, Stafford County Mills installed a wind turbine outside the city limits of Hudson, making it the first commercial flour milling facility in North America to use wind power-generated electricity produced on site.

That kind of innovation really began decades ago.

According to its website, hudsoncream.com, in 1922, “Leila English Reid, who was born and raised in Stafford County, moved to West Virginia.”  Not happy with the type of flour she found there on grocery shelves, she negotiated to bring a train car shipment of Hudson Cream Flour to West Virginia.

The rest is history because now, a majority of Hudson Cream Flour still sells and is popular on the East Coast.

“Why it has survived, I think, goes to two things: number one, it is a premium product on the market, and it’s allowed us to keep a market share when a lot of people sold out.,” said Derek Foote, who is in management at the mill’s corporate office in Hudson. “The other is the local community supporting it. When the mill went up for sale, there were local people buying it to keep it local.”

That happened in 1986 when, the Krug family – the original owners of the mill -were ready to retire and looking to sell the Stafford County Flour Mills. Fearing it might mean a loss for the local economy, several area residents pooled their resources to buy the flour mill and keep the company local.

The end results is that the flour and other products are now shipped to 41 states, Foote said.

“Not all that’s in our bags, nor the Hudson Cream Flour or Stafford County Flour Mills label,” he said. “Most of our label goes either in the Midwest or back to the Appalachian states.”

In addition, the Stafford County Mills supplies the public schools in Hawaii with flour, and product for kosher companies in New York and Chicago.

When the mills are running, 400,000 pounds of flour can be turned out in a day, Foote said.

“A lot of it is the quality of the product,” Foote said. “I think that’s the biggest thing is that we have kind of a cult-like following, especially back in the Appalachian states because of its short patent flour. Basically, it’s how we refine it. We pull a lot of the clear flour, the heavy stuff off. And so, what we are left with is just the heart – a flour that is smother, softer. That’s why the cream is in the name. Big mills can’t do that — or they don’t do it so much. It allows us to make more of a premium product that differentiates ourselves. We have been able to sell to niche markets.

“We are about the only one (in the nation) that does it with winter wheat – that’s the key part.”

In recent years, the mill has also substantially grown a market for organic flour.

“We actually do a pretty good volume of it,” Foote said. “It’s not grown around here as much and not as much of it is sold around here – but that product goes more to the east coast and to places like Denver and Austin. We do a significant volume, and it just keeps increasing.”

Not bad for a flour mill where the majority of its wheat is grown within 26 miles of Hudson.

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South Central Community Foundation Grant Recipients 2023

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2023 SCCF $5,000 Children’s Health Grant Recipient: 

City of Stafford: West Park Equipment Update 

2023 SCCF Community Grant Recipients: 

Lucille M. Hall Museum for Education and History: 

                       Isaac B. Werner Memorial Fireproof File Cabinet……………… $1,000  

USD 349 – Stafford Schools: Art Program Materials and Supplies……………. $1,000 

Macksville Middle School: Social Studies Books…………………………………….. $1,000  

Zenith Community Presbyterian Church:  

                      Stafford Ministerial Alliance Food Assistance Program……….. $1,500  

USD 350 – St. John-Hudson Schools:

                     Therapy Dog Training and Certification………………………………. $1,760 

Macksville City Library: Hometown Hospitality on Display Project………….. $1,395 

Nora E. Larabee Memorial Library: Computers………………………………………. $1,000 

St. John High School: Robotics Technology……………………………………………. $1,000 

USD 350 – St. John-Hudson Schools: Orff Instruments……………………………. $1,838 

Stafford County Core Community: Core Curriculum…………………………………. $680 

Macksville Grade School: Library Books……………………………………………….. $1,000 

Macksville Grace Church: Food Pantry and Necessities Nook Supplies……… $2,000 

City of Stafford: Uptown Sound System………………………………………………….. $1,462 

St. John Elementary School: STEAM Day Supplies………………………………….. $1,240 

St. John High School: Cameras……………………………………………………………….. $950 

Macksville High School: Leadership Workshop and Supplies…………………… $1,600 

Stafford County Economic Development:

                      Youth Entrepreneur Challenge Supplies………………………………. $1,880 

Nora E. Larabee Memorial Library: ADA Bathroom Project…………………….. $1,954 

2023 SCCF $250 Teacher’s Grant Recipients:                                                                                                                                            

St. John Elementary School: Social Emotional Online Learning………. Michelle Christiansen 

Macksville Junior High and High School: Care Closet Restock……. Jessica Neeland 

St. John Elementary School: Shoe Lacing Trainers…………………………… Trish Wade 

St. John Junior High School: Classroom Library Books………………….. Andrea Long 

St. John Elementary School: Kagan Cooperative Learning Materials. Bonnie Ward 

Stafford High School: Classroom Library Books………………………….. Dianna Fisher 

USD 350 – St. John-Hudson Schools: Ceramics Tools and Glazes…….. Brad Emery 

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Trap Shooting Team to Hold Quarter Auction Fundraiser November 18th

Quartermania is almost upon us! November 18th to be exact. St. John-Hudson Trap Shooting Team is holding a quarter action to fundraise for the team. The event will be held at the St. John High School Cafeteria with doors opening at 6:30. Grab a paddle for the auction and watch the mayem begin. Items to be auctioned will include scentsy, paper pie books, fancy filly boutique, paparazzi jewelry, pampered chef, purses, baked goods and more.

What is a Quarter Auction?

A quarter auction is part raffle, part auction, part fundraiser and also a direct sales party. It works a bit like bingo. When you arrive, you will be given a numbered paddle(s) for a donation. This paddle(s) will have a corresponding numbered poker chip which will be put into the drawing basket. A few ALL in paddles will also be available.

A few minutes before the auction begins, you’ll be able to purchase any remaining paddles for a donation, if you wish. There will be multiple items up for “auction” – some from vendors and some from sponsors/donors. All items will be on display for about an hour after the doors open so you can look around and decide which items you’re interested in. You can also shop the booths for additional items as well – a perfect time to get some Christmas shopping done!

Once the auction begins, the announcer or one of the helpers will hold up the item that’s up for bid and will announce whether the item is a “one quarter,”  “two quarter,” bid or “three quarter bid”. If you’re interested in bidding, you’ll put the specified number of quarters (1,2,or 3) for EACH paddle you intend to bid with. For example, if you have two paddles and want to bid with both to double your chances, and the item is a “one quarter” bid, you’ll put .50 in the bucket and raise your paddle(s). If you have two paddles and decide to only bid with one, you only pay .25 BUT you MUST choose only one numbered paddle to bid with. You will hold up your paddle(s) that you chose to bid with. A worker will be walking from table to table with a bucket to collect bids. 

The announcer will then draw a number to find a winner. If they draw your number and you bid on the item, hooray! You just won an awesome item at a great price! If they draw your number and you did NOT bid, just call out “no bid!” and they’ll continue to draw numbers until they find a winner.

 Be sure to bring quarters, but if you forget or run out, there will be rolls of quarters available for purchase at the event. If it all sounds complicated, relax. Everything will be explained again once you get to the auction, and you’ll catch on in no time and you’ll love it! 

Vendors will also be open after the auction.

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Stafford County Eco Devo Participates in South Central Community Foundation’s Matching Day to Spur Economic Growth in Food Sector and Youth Entrepreneurship

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By Ryan Russell

Stafford County leaders have been working to finalize details in opening a commercial kitchen at the Stafford County Annex in St. John.

While some of the initial construction has yet to be completed, the county commission has generously given to help get the kitchen going.  In addition, Stafford County Economic Development Inc. was awarded a grant by South Central Community Foundation to hold Youth Entrepreneur Challenge (YEC) this year with a focus being on value added food creation. 

The YEC youth are challenged to create a business concept and compete against each other.

Stafford County Economic Development will offer an entrepreneurship training program in 2024 — that is food related, once the kitchen is completed and licensed.

Additional programming will be in partnership with 4H extension with their youth programs to create commercially viable products.  We will also work with 4H extension to create year-round programming.

The idea behind this is that Stafford County has an abundance of raw food materials from the flour mill, produce farmers, a number of small farms producing high-quality meat and dairy products; however, there is a lack of value-added products that are marketable.

Additional funds are needed.

The goal is to raise $10,000 for the operational and programming costs connected to the Commercial Kitchen.  This will include the costs of bringing in people with the technical skills and knowledge to help with training in packaging and food processing.  We will also be putting in a gas stove and other equipment that may be needed depending on who uses the kitchen.

Here’s how that money can be raised:

Beginning in November, South Central Community Foundation is doing a matching day on Giving Tuesday.  They have a pool of $70,000 to use in matching.  Each organization has an opportunity to get the funds they’ve raised matched, and an endowment created that will gain interest every year to be used for whatever projects an organization has to fund. 

Though Giving Tuesday is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, individuals can give throughout the month of November. Stafford County Economic Development is participating in South Central Community Foundations month of giving.  

So, give generously this November and help Stafford County Economic Development spur economic growth in Stafford County’s nascent food product industry.  To donate to support this important program, click on the link. https://www.sccfmatchday.org/nonprofits.cfm?id=1830

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